ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Grant Hill scored a season-high 42 points
for the second straight game and fueled a decisive second-half
run as the streaking Detroit Pistons shrugged off the
floundering Atlanta Hawks, 120-108.

Hill, who also had 42 in Monday's impressive 118-106 victory at
Orlando, had only 13 at halftime tonight before exploding over
the final 24 minutes. The versatile 6-8 forward scored 14
points during a devastating 28-8 run spanning the third and
fourth quarters as the Pistons erased a 10-point deficit and
took a 97-87 lead with 9:54 to play.

Hill made 14-of-23 shots, 13-of-15 free throws and handed out
six assists while committing just one turnover in 43 minutes to
lead Detroit to its second five-game winning streak of the
season. The Pistons also won five in a row from November 17-26
and took three of four meetings from Atlanta this season.

"In the third quarter I just tried to assert myself," Hill said
of his 17-point period. "We're slowly starting to build it. We
don't want to get too full of ourselves."

Jerry Stackhouse scored 28 points and Christian Laettner added
23 and 12 rebounds for the Pistons, who moved a season-high
three games over .500. Hill, Stackhouse and Laettner combined
to score 93 of Detroit's highest non-overtime point total of the
season.

"Christian and Jerry played great," Hill said. "Our chemistry
was really good. Overall, we had a good rhythm offensively. If
we could just hold a team under 100 points, we figure we have a
good chance to win."

"Grant and Jerry are playing with great confidence," Detroit
coach Alvin Gentry added. "We were able to speed up the game,
we were aggressive. We've been able to win some close games."

Isaiah Rider scored 27 points for Atlanta, which has lost five
in a row, nine of 10 and was without coach Lenny Wilkens for the
second straight game due to the flu.

"They pulled away from us, they started playing really good.
They executed, we didn't; we got close but no cigar," Rider
said. "It's rough on us right about now. We can't buy a win."

Dikembe Mutombo had 15 points and Jim Jackson and Bimbo Coles
added 12 apiece for the Hawks, who failed to avenge a bitter
106-105 overtime loss to the Pistons on Thursday.

"It's tough in this league," Mutombo said. "You could be up by
10 but you have to have the mental toughness and the kill to
finish the game. It's just frustrating the way we've been
playing. We need to find the mental toughness to finish the
game. We don't have it right now. We can't let the teams take
control of the game in the third quarter."

Terry Mills hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Detroit to
victory that night and Atlanta rookie Jason Terry appeared to
give the Hawks a lift when he buried a desperation 63-footer to
close the third quarter tonight, forging an 87-87 tie.

But Laettner made two free throws, John Crotty hit a 3-pointer,
Hill added a layup and Jerome Williams drained two more from the
line to give Detroit a 10-point bulge just over two minutes into
the final period.

The Pistons shot 56 percent (45-of-81), scored 23 points off
turnovers and limited the Hawks to a season-low 29 rebounds.

"I thought we did a great job on the boards," Gentry said. "The
bottom line is that if Grant is going to get on a roll like
that, Jerry is going to play like that and Christian is going to
play like that, somewhere along the line we're going to be good
enough to make a run."

"We feel good," Stackhouse added. "We are making up for some of
the marginal games early on. Hopefully we'll keep building. I
think rebounding was the key tonight. The last time we played
them, they killed us on the boards."

Atlanta shot a season-best 56 percent (42-of-75) but is off to
its worst start (11-20) since going 9-22 to open the 1971-72
season.